Damian Barrett

So here for four or five days, been a long-time partner of ours, Maccas, and...

I found a spot to chat to you, Damo, at the Vintner Grill, it's called, which is in Summerill, which is a town about 20 to 25 minutes off the Strip.

So you'd know, Damo, having travelled with me a little bit, that one of the things I like to do is get off the tourist beat and try and find where the locals hang out.

So conference this morning, got to go back this afternoon, had to spend an hour with you, and I thought, where's a spot in Vegas that I can find that's a little bit different?

So I'm sitting on the patio of a...

Italian-slash-steak-style beanie called the Vintner Grill, which is in the leafy surrounds of Summerill, as the newspapers would say, don't they?

Well, yeah.

I could turn this into an ad for our business if you'd like.

No, no, please don't.

We've had a 20-year relationship, as you know, with the Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, New Zealand, so I've got a little bit on my plate over the next few days, but it's nice to be here in an American summer.

Are you speaking at this conference?

The speakers at these events are more your sort of Zuckerberg, LeBron James-style speakers, Damo.

They're not your broken-down hack journalists from Melbourne.

So, yeah, a long way from the stage on this one.

Well, I noticed, before we get into it, a couple of things.

I noticed the eight forward seasons on already.

So we talk about this a little bit as a theme on the sounding board.

Pay it forward season is another area of journalism which we have perhaps touched on in the past but not got into great detail on.

And here's a little example of it today.

So what journalists find difficult, Damo, is how to add value to their contacts.